Holy Land - 11.22 (Part 1)

This would be our last day of "touring" in the Holy Land, so our tour guides really packed it in. They rearranged the route to beat the 50 busses of tourists coming off the cruise ships. We started at the Garden of Gethsemane where we saw eight olive trees, five of which are dated to be over 2,300 years old. That means that Jesus walked among these trees, and so did we! Most of the olive trees were cut from the Mount of Olives by the Muslims, in an effort to eliminate the possibility of a new King (Jesus) to be anointed with oil from the Olive trees on the Mt. of Olives, as is required by Jewish law. This was another Muslim attempt to stop Jesus from returning as King -- even though they say they don't believe in Him!

Not far from these olive trees is the Stone of Agony, where Jesus prayed and sweat drops of blood. The Rock of Agony is directly in front of the pulpit at the Catholic "Church of All Nations" with an iron fence shaped as thorns surrounding it. Interestingly, this Catholic church has no religious symbols, is open 24/7, and has widows made of Alabaster. These windows are symbolic of the Alabaster vials that contain the olive oil with which the new King (Jesus) will be anointed.

We went to a private area of the garden for a service. On the way, several in our group noticed the clovers with red spots on the leaves. The red spots are symbolic of the drops of blood that Christ shed as He prayed in the garden. The Garden of Gethsemane is the only place in the world where these clovers can be found. Is that just a coincidence?

The next stop was a children's hospital at which we distributed toys and Randy presented the Gospel using object lessons with a basketball. The hospital also contained a school. The children were in their uniforms, well behaved, and learning on their laptops. It was exciting to see the educational opportunities for these children.

We continued to the house of Caiaphas, the High Priest. This was the place where Jesus was tried, scourged, and Peter denied Christ. We saw the scourging area and how they tied and stretched those who were being scourged. We saw the salt pools into which they dipped the sponges to mop over the open wounds and increase the pain. We saw the Roman scourge with its leather straps and metal barbs. We saw the pit into which Jesus was thrown (approx. 12 feet deep hole) and the rocks against which He leaned to cool His back after the scourging.

We went outside for a brief lesson and heard a rooster crowing! We saw the Jericho Rd. We looked across to the Mt. of Scandal, and could see the close proximity of Caiaphas' house to Jerusalem, the Kidron Valley, and the Mt. of Olives. It was only about a 12 minute walk from Caiaphas' house to where the soldiers apprehended Jesus and He could see them coming the whole way. This was an amazing place!